An important declining native wildlife species is being methodically slaughtered at Maine hydroelectric dams with full complicity of Maine's DEP [Department of Economic Protection!].

The story of the American eel is that of the original incredible journey, their fate at dams a chilling example of one reason why hydro power, is not so "green." The following piece was written to accompany an aerial tour of dams along the Kennebec, Androscoggin and Little Androscoggin Rivers. For more information on eels as well as other water and fishery issues in the Merrymeeting Bay watershed [10,000 sq. miles or about 38% of Maine]. Go to the Merrymeeting Bay Cybrary link at the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay site: www.friendsofmerrymeetingbay.org.

Dam Video Tape, Partial Narration. Ed Friedman 2/14/06

Today we are flying up the Kennebec, Androscoggin and Little Androscoggin Rivers in a Robinson R-22 helicopter. Our goal is to photograph dams named in the Friends of Merrymeeting Bay and Doug Watts petitions to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection. These petitions call for modifications to dam water quality certifications in order to permit the safe and efficient up and downstream passage of the migratory American eel. The federal Clean Water Act requires state water quality certification of any facility discharging into navigable water bodies. The definition of “discharge” has been challenged and is under review this term by the US Supreme Court in SD Warren v. Maine BEP. Until this is decided the certification requirement remains the law of the land as upheld by the Maine Supreme Court.

Most Board of Environmental Protection members have likely not seen the dams in question nor fully understand the drastic effects they have on what is a rapidly dwindling eel population. Our hope is that photographs may help them to better understand the situation and motivate them to take immediate action.

Eels are a catadromous fish species, that is to say they spend most of their lives in fresh water and only migrate to salt water for spawning. Unlike most species, they reproduce only once in their lives so success is critical to survival of the species. Eel populations have declined so much in recent years that they are currently being reviewed as possible candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act.

While there may be many contributors to eel decline including ocean warming, shifts in ocean currents, introduced parasites and over-fishing, the harmful effects of dams are well documented and something we can easily remedy. Dams, particularly hydro-electric dams, form relatively impervious barriers to eel migration and are killing them. Juvenile eels moving upstream are blocked by dams. While young eels can, under the right conditions, actually leave the water briefly in their attempts to pass dams, this puts them at increased risk. Aggregations of eels below dams cause an artificial increase in their predation by other species. Eels may also become fatally exhausted from the excessive energy used in attempts to bypass dams. Ultimately, thousands of young eels are deprived of their access to necessary upstream habitat and thousands are killed through direct and indirect effects of attempted upstream dam passage.

Those eels that do get up and around dams, must, some 15-50 years later when the genetic urge strikes, migrate thousands of miles to the Sargasso Sea to breed. When the only way through a hydro-electric dam is through spinning turbine blades of steel, the results are a grimly predictable slaughter of thousands of eels. Observations at various dams around the world have recorded eel mortality rates of 5-100% per dam, depending on such things as turbine type, water flow, and eel length. Most eels are required to successfully navigate past a multitude of dams. Cumulative dam effects, as found on these rivers, can destroy the population if a single dam does not. Necessary for safe eel passage is a screening or shutdown of turbines during migration season in combination with an alternative way through the dam, typically via a deep gate or opening in the structure.

These up and downstream protective measures are in place at some dams and are not cost prohibitive, this is what the petitions request of the State. We can have electricity and eels, but only if we act immediately.